Five Years of Foster Care: The Bells’ Story
In their over five years of fostering, the Bell Family did more than provide a house for the 24 children that stayed in their home throughout those years; they also shared unconditional love that led to lasting connections.
Matt and Tara Bell first considered foster care after their pastor’s daughter began her own foster care journey. Soon after, Families 4 Families Founder and CEO Wayne Naugle visited their church to speak.
“We decided to go to the information session,” Tara explained. “We were thinking about potentially opening up our home for respite care to give foster parents a break or just be a resource. We weren’t thinking about opening our home.”
But in that meeting, something changed.
“We left the meeting with a different thought. We both felt like we were supposed to open our home and be foster parents ourselves,” she shared.
Once they were approved as foster parents, the Bells welcomed their first placement, a baby girl they’re still surrounding with love today.
“I brought her home from the hospital as a newborn, and she stayed with us for a month because she was going to be placed with another family,” Tara said.
That family? The McGuires, another couple in Tara’s church who answered God’s call to foster through Families 4 Families.
“We felt called to work with sibling groups because that was a big need, so we agreed to be her first family [until the McGuires were approved],” Tara shared. “Our first placement is our sweet goddaughter now.”
Following this first placement, the Bells kept their hearts and home open for 23 more children, and with each placement, Matt and Tara prayerfully remained open to adoption if that path was best for the children.
“We felt like we were supposed to adopt, but we didn’t know who we were supposed to adopt,” Tara explained. “It was just something that we knew God might be leading us toward if it ever became a possibility.”
In the summer of 2021, the Bells heard about a sibling set of three little ones. When they learned Families 4 Families and DFCS were looking for a forever home for them, the Bells felt these children were the ones God had been preparing them to welcome through adoption.
Two years later, all three children officially joined the Bell family, and Matt and Tara closed their home after over five years of committed care.
Even after closing their home, the Bells haven’t stopped loving the children who no longer live in their home, including a sibling set that now lives out of state.
“We had one placement — two kiddos, a little boy and a little girl. They had been with us for over a year and ended up moving to live with a relative. But we are still very involved with them, and we usually talk multiple times a week over the phone,” Tara shared.
In addition to their two biological daughters and three adopted children, they still consider these little ones theirs.
“We kind of joke that we have seven kids, but it’s not really a joke. They left our home in 2019, and they still call us ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad,’” said Tara.
While close to 50% of foster families in Georgia close their homes after the first year, the Bells continually beat the odds. With support from their church family and Families 4 Families, the Bells received the encouragement and help they needed to keep going.
“Being perfectly honest, I don’t know that we would have been able to stay open for five and a half years without Families 4 Families,” Tara said. “The support they provided allowed us to parent to the best of our ability and to focus on the kids.”
For Tara, seemingly small acts of support were big reasons the Bells continued to say “yes” to more children.
“A meal every once in a while is so nice, especially after you’ve been to court with your kiddos, and then you still have to come home to five or six people who are waiting to eat. Or to have someone watch the kids even for an hour so mom and dad can just go for a walk and be a married couple,” Tara explained.
“We’re just people who are trying to walk through very traumatic experiences with little people who don’t understand what’s going on, and just having someone that can listen and be supportive is so important.”
